This invention relates generally to means for mounting a wheel element on a rotatable shaft, and more particularly pertains to a hub assembly for mountably securing a wheel element for rotation in unison with a shaft or axle.
There are many machine applications wherein wheels of one type or another are mounted for rotation on a shaft or axle. One such application is found in conveyors for sheet material wherein sheets are successively fed onto a conveying apparatus and moved through one or more treating zones. An example of such conveyance equipment is that which is used in conveying large sheets or panels of glass in a horizontal pathway through successive washing and drying zones. The conveying apparatus may comprise a series of spaced-apart horizontal driven shafts disposed transverse to the direction of conveyance. On each shaft may be secured resilient tires or rollers, in spaced-apart relation, which rotate with the shafts on which they are mounted and supportably drive the glass sheets, edge first, in a predetermined horizontal pathway through which the sheets are successively subjected to washing, rinsing, and air drying steps of the cleaning process. The tires or rollers can be affixed to the shafts on hubs having mechanical means, such as a key and keyway or a radially-oriented set screw to bind the hub to the shaft.
In such conveyance equipment as heretofore described, it is often necessary to relocate the rollers along the length of the shafts on which they are carried, consistent with different sizes of sheets to be conveyed for treatment. Hence, there is a need for a rapid means of releasing the hub on which a roller is carried on the shaft, from its binding engagement with the shaft, whereby the roller may be slid to a new position along the shaft length and then resecured in binding locked dispostion on the shaft.